Computer won't boot on Win8 UEFI restore

(Edited to add Win 8.1 info)

Possibly I'm missing something very simple and obvious here but I've tried this 6 times now in various ways and obviously I don't know as much as I thought I did, and I know nothing about UEFI.I've searched the forums and tried various things without results and I hope someone can help, but I'm not convinced the Paragon documentation is very good.

I have a new Asus G750 with Win8 Pro x64 which came with a 256GB SSD and a 512GB hard drive. Since it arrived I updated the Win 8 to 8.1 without issues. I wanted to change the drives to two 512GB SSDs in raid 0 configuration. I bought Paragon Hard Disk Manager 12 Suite (for 3 users), based on recommendations I read, and downloaded and installed the following as per the email I was sent:

Component Paragon Hard Disk Manager 12 Suite - Windows Installation Package
Component Paragon Hard Disk Manager 12 Suite - Boot Media Builder installation package
Component Paragon Hard Disk Manager 12 Suite - WinPE Recovery Media Builder Serial protected (64bit)
and the documentation.

Once installed I ran the Backup -> Smart Backup -> and selected the entire SSD disk to go to my network drive. I then made two USB recovery media, one with the Burn Recovery Media option in the Suite, and a second one using standalone WinPE Recovery Media Builder for which I had to download WAIK from Microsoft and also added the mount for the network drive.

Then I changed out both drives that came with the computer and installed two new Samsung 840 Pro Series 512GB SSDs. When it booted I went into the setup utility (BIOS) and set the disks to Raid 0, turned off Secure Boot and then let it restart and in the Intel Storage Manager (CTRL+I when booting) created a new raid volume (screen image).

I rebooted using the WinPE Recovery USB and did a complete restore of the original GPT image to the new raid disk, with the 'Switch EFI to boot from destionation drive' and everything has seemed to complete successfully every single time but no matter what I try I can not get the restored disk to boot.

This is what the raid disk shows the current structure after the last time I restored: Image. I have no clue why there are so many small partitions on the disk; presumably some are from Asus for restoring (no documentation there) and some are Windows 8.1 but I don't know.

I have redone the Restore with booting from UEFI: USB Drive, and from USB Drive without the UEFI and tried all the settings I can imagine without success. I have undone the raid array and restored to two separate SSD drives. I have done a restore with only one SSD in the computer.

I have run the Boot Corrector Tools and tried the Windows Installation to Correct, Correct Boot Parameters (boot.ini, BCD), and the Correct EFI Boot Parameters without success.

As a side note when I try to boot from the other USB created in Hard Disk Manager there is no UEFI: USB option in the boot list, and when it shows me the Normal, Safe, Low Graphics, Find OS menu I get the following results:

• Normal: just reboots and returns to the same menu
• Safe: tries to boot and freezes during "Loading boot sector... booting..."
• Low-Graphics: tries to boot and freezes during "Loading boot sector... booting..."
• Find O/S: screen blanks and returns to the same menu but without the Find O/S option

And lastly, I was going to give up and reinstall the original SSD and hard disk, but found that after the weekend my son took the SSD back to university with him and installed it as a new drive in his computer, so I can't even revert to what I had originally. Unless I can solve this I think I may have to go out and buy a new Windows 8 and do a fresh install and then try to restore just the data files.

Any and all help would be much appreciated.

 

SYSTEM should be the “EFI System partition”, which is the boot (active) partition in a GPT boot disk. Check that it is effectively marked as the boot partition.

Local Disk (128 MB) is the “MSR” partition, required by Windows in a GPT boot disk.

OS (C: ) is the partition that contains the Windows installation. It´s not the boot partition.

RECOVERY is probably the partition that contains the WinRE, that is used in certain recovery operations.

RESTORE is probably the partition that contains the image to restore the computer to its factory configuration.

Local Disk (349 MB) – is probably another recovery partition created by the process to upgrade to 8.1.

 

Currently the Paragon Software current versions are not supported for the 8.1 operating system, so if you are running into issues please be aware that you have the ability to back up the OS, but you may run into issues with other operations. There will be a new version released at the end of the month, which will support the 8.1 operating system.

 

Thanks for the reply Robin. That makes it somewhat clearer but I still need to solve the boot problem. In the Boot Corrector Tools the 'Edit/View Sectors' is the only tool that shows my drive layout and it doesn't number the partitions, just names them. In the 'Windows Installation To Correct' tool it doesn't name the partitions but just refers to them by number which seems less than helpful. It's hard for neophytes to identify the partition they want to make bootable. Oh well, thanks for the help.

 

Thanks for your response Matt. Paragon should put a note to that effect on the website on any download purchases, because I am definitely having issues! Nothing I've tried is making my computer bootable. I certainly hope the fix is retroactive so I can restore from my existing backup!

 

This document may be of help:

"Significant booting challenges on EFI systems when upgrading to Windows 8", http://blog.paragon-software.com/?p=2692.

According to this, you could try with a 64-bit WinPE 4.0, built using WADK (not WAIK).

Edit: use WADK for Windows 8, not for Windows 8.1 (the Paragon program may not support it).

 

Hi Nihilism,

Do you still need any help on this issue?
Unfortunately, I don't see in your original request what are the symptoms of unbootable OS ?
Do you see any graphic on Windows startup?
Are there any boot errors you can see?

Maybe the issue is not related to UEFI boot itself.

 

Currently when the computer is turned on and after showing the Asus logo and Intel Rapid Storage Tech option (CTRL+I) it ends with a black screen and "Reboot and select proper boot device
or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key"

After the last restore this is what my Setup shows with no bootable partition. As I said, I tried the various tools without success. If I go into Setup and try to add a boot option I get to select from two choices:

• PCI(1D|0)\USB(4.0)\HD(Part1.Sig438CA2E6)
  - choosing this one gives me choices from my USB stick as I can see the Utilities folder I added for various tools.
  
• PCI(1F|2\VenHw(cf31fac5-c24e-11d2 ... etc,etc,)
  - choosing this one asks me to Select File To Boot and then gives me a choice of <Microsoft>, <Boot> or <Asus>. The Microsoft and Asus choices just ask me to select from a boot language (en-GB, en-US, etc) but go no further once I select them. The <Boot> option lets me select BOOTX64.EFI but when I create this as a boot option and select it from the Boot menu in Setup I get a light blue screen with:
  "RECOVERY
  Your PC needs to be repaired
  Error Code: 0xc0000034
  You need to use the recovery disks . . .
  Press ESC for EFI settings" which takes me back to Setup

As I mentioned in the reply to Robin A., I am somewhat confused when trying to use the Boot Corrector Tools. The 'Edit/View Sectors' tool shows the System partition but only by name, and in 6th position on the list. The 'Windows Installation To Correct' screen (apologies for poor pic) does not show partition names, just numbers and Robin said the System partition needs to be made active and bootable. Additionally I'm not certain whether the partitions start numbering from 0 or 1. The Boot Correction Wizard (the background box) is telling me that there is an unknown operating system on partition 3 that is bootable and current boot parameters are partition 1. If I click on Correct Boot Parameters the foreground box opens as shown. The Choose Registry Volume is greyed out. I can click the box to make Active, and in the partition ID I can select NTFS. However setting the partition ID manually is totally unclear. Should it be set to 0, 1, 3, 6 or something else?

At this point I have done a complete fresh restore 8 times (5 hours+ each) and I think I've tried all the options but I could have missed something I suppose. The pictures I have posted above are all from a fresh restore without any changes having been made.

Having become somewhat disillusioned by the whole process and the software I have ordered this morning a new retail copy of Windows 8 so I can get this thing running again. Agreed, it is my mistake for assuming that something recommended for Win 8 would also work with Win 8.1 (which has been out in developer form for months), but I'm severely unimpressed by the unclear documentation and wizards.

Any suggestions you may have would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

@Nihilism

I have also tried everything to get win 8.1 to restore an image, with no luck.
I did save an image of win 8 pro install. And was able to restore the win 8 image.

I can help you with what the partitions are.
OS C:\ = win 8 or 8.1
SYSTEM = is part of win 8 or 8.1 (size 300 to 350mb) was around 100 in win 7

Restore, Recovery & local disk (no drive letter) are part of Asus Recovery.

I think to get back your OS you can use the Asus recovery to get your OS back.

I always keep all my personal files (documents, I move all into one folder) on another drive.
My OS drive is always since win95 only my OS.

I use 2 to 4 Crucial SSD's raid 0 for OS.

Hope that helps.

 

Thanks.

People are asking me about Paragon 8.1 support over on http://www.eightforums.com/

It seems to be working ok for me, but glad to hear there is new version coming. Is that an update or an entirely new major version?

 

Some days ago, I received an offer via e-mail, with a free upgrade to the forthcoming HDM 14.

 

Thanks Robin,

I will have to check my emails. Can't recall receiving that.

 

I got a discount offer from HDM11 to HDM12 and that's the "only" offer I've ever received. Maybe your special?

 

Maybe.

 

Wait a minute! As worded, it sounds like if you purchase HDM12 "now", you'll get a free upgrade to HDM14. They aren't offering a free upgrade to HDM14 to existing owners of HDM12.

 

Of course not. I didn´t mean that, don´t expect that. My point was that is not an update to 12, but a new version.

 

Your post didn't come across like that.

 

maybe that offer is only targeted to certain customers like Robin.

 

Maybe ('.. for our loyal customers..offer is only available through this newsletter..'). However, anyone can grab this offer, I think. And for already licensed of v12, after the release v14, will probably , be prompted to update with 50%

 

I am sure the update will be free for owners of the HDM12 series.

Previously, there were a few ( at least 3 ) years between new releases of Windows.

That was when Paragon would expect you to buy the new version.

This is not a new version of windows, it is a service pack. About 12mths.

I don't think Paragon will expect everybody to buy the product again if they have to adjust to a service pack.

 

I'm sure that the update will paid, even willing to bet (i put a license of HDM12suite against HDM14pro installer copy).

 

Ignoring the threadjacking I gave up on trying to make a Hard Drive Suite 12 restore work with Windows 8.1 so I resorted to doing a clean uEFI install of Windows 8 on my computer and reinstalled all the drivers and most of my applications. Other than the fact that the initial install wouldn't proceed without installing a driver that it stupidly wouldn't identify (turned out to be the Intel raid driver) it was actually fairly straight forward. So I'm back in business, and many thanks to the people who tried to help. I'm not sold on Paragon being the best or simplest Backup or Partition software out there though.

 

Glad you've got things sorted out.
I kind of concur now, that Paragon is not as solid as I previously thought it was. I recently installed Ubuntu 13.10 x64 to dual boot with windows 8.1 x64. These two systems are on two separate disks. windows is on a ssd and Ubuntu is on a HDD. everytime I tried the HDM 12 recovery cd to backup the Ubuntu disk, Paragon crashed 2 seconds after it started the actual imaging operation.
The problem is reproducible on both of my computers with win81+ubuntu13.10 x64 dual boot, therefore I think its a bug that Paragon needs to fix.
Acronis and IFL works fine.

 

Not sure why you are having that problem. Paragon backs up and restores my linux partitions fine. Perhaps it is something specific to your system.

 

thanks.
though: it happened to both my desktop and laptop. One system installed in UEFI mode with secure boot, one system installed as traditional MBR mode.
I used to be able to backup Ubuntu in my previously owned desktop computer and laptops before I sold them. I even suspected that my Paragon Recovery disk went bad so I made a fresh copy again, but same problem.
I don't think its specific to my system because my desktop and laptop have completely different hardware configs.